Well, it seems that Mitt, Trav and Sal have decided to go public with their differences on the health care bill negotiations. Again, ‘BUR had a decent report today, heavy on Mitt’s and Trav’s criticisms of DiMasi for being “obstructionist”. And yes, the sticking point is the employer assessment.
But DiMasi seems to be the only one with a rudimentary understanding of how incentives work. Trav supports making companies that don’t insure workers reimburse the Free Care Pool for their care; Can you imagine then the incentive to lay off sick workers? “Sorry, you’re costing us too much. Bye.” An employee is really in double-jeopardy then, both health and job.
As I understand it, DiMasi is committed to removing incentives for companies to give up coverage, and removing fees for those employers who do provide insurance. If you leave the perverse incentives of the current system in place, we’re going to have to revisit that issue in the future anyway.
And the money clock is ticking: State House News Service has a report of dire warnings from local hospitals which will lose funds because the plan is now late.
Time to get this done; time for Mitt and Trav to bend to reality; time for a mediator: maybe a Senator ex machina. TK, you out there?
Its amazing that Trav once used to support Single Payor. He is single-handedly getting in the way of any real reform. Why in a state with Democratic leadership does the leadership want to make the Republicans look reasonable while they fight amongst themselves. As you point out, DiMasi and the employer assessment is clearly the right way to go!